This is going to sound strange after a Game 2 on Saturday night that the Bruins won 7-3 and the top line registered in the vicinity of a billion points against a Maple Leafs defense that has, to this point, looked slow, bewildered and outclassed.

But if it wasn't for Tuukka Rask, the goaltender that elicits such a range of emotion from the Bruins fandom, that game and the series could have been much different.

“Yeah, I mean you look at a game like this, sometimes that gets overlooked, but for sure,” Bruce Cassidy said.

The coach was talking specifically about a stretch near the end of the second period when the Bruins, leading 5-2 at the time, hibernated for a bit.